The present invention relates to a circuit breaker. More specifically, the invention relates to a novel circuit breaker in which a pair of contacts are quickly separated from each other when it is operated, the arcing voltage is rapidly raised so that the arc established between the contacts will not spread to the conductors in the vicinity of the contacts, and the arc is efficiently confined in a magnetic manner in order to quickly extinguish the arc.
In conventional circuit breakers, the arc established across the contacts has tended to spread to conductors in the vicinity of the contacts, and it has not been possible to sufficiently increase the arcing voltage. Moreover, it has not been possible to efficiently extinguish the arc, either.